sort(1)sort(1)Namesort - sort file data
Syntaxsort [options] [-k keydef] [+pos1[-pos2]] [file...]
Description
The command sorts lines of all the named files together and writes the
result on the standard output. The name `-' means the standard input.
If no input files are named, the standard input is sorted.
Options
The default sort key is an entire line. Default ordering is lexico‐
graphic by bytes in machine collating sequence. The ordering is
affected globally by the following options, one or more of which may
appear.
-b Ignores leading blanks (spaces and tabs) in field compar‐
isons.
-d Sorts data according to dictionary ordering: letters, dig‐
its, and blanks only.
-f Folds uppercase to lowercase while sorting.
-i Ignore characters outside the ASCII range 040-0176 in non‐
numeric comparisons.
-k keydef The keydefargument is a key field definition. The format is
field_start, [field_end] [type], where field_start and
field_end are the definition of the restricted search key,
and type is a modifier from the option list [bdfinr]. These
modifiers have the functionality, for this key only, that
their command line counter-parts have for the entire
record.
-n Sorts fields with numbers numerically. An initial numeric
string, consisting of optional blanks, optional minus sign,
and zero or more digits with optional decimal point, is
sorted by arithmetic value. (Note that -0 is taken to be
equal to 0.) Option n implies option b.
-r Reverses the sense of comparisons.
-tx Uses specified character as field separator.
The notation +pos1 -pos2 restricts a sort key to a field beginning at
pos1 and ending just before pos2. Pos1 and pos2 each have the form
m.n, optionally followed by one or more of the options bdfinr, where m
tells a number of fields to skip from the beginning of the line and n
tells a number of characters to skip further. If any options are
present they override all the global ordering options for this key. If
the b option is in effect n is counted from the first nonblank in the
field; b is attached independently to pos2. A missing .n means .0; a
missing -pos2 means the end of the line. Under the -tx option, fields
are strings separated by x; otherwise fields are nonempty nonblank
strings separated by blanks.
When there are multiple sort keys, later keys are compared only after
all earlier keys compare equal. Lines that otherwise compare equal are
ordered with all bytes significant.
These are additional options:
-c Checks sorting order and displays output only if out of
order.
-m Merges previously sorted data.
-o name Uses specified file as output file. This file may be the
same as one of the inputs.
-T dir Uses specified directory to build temporary files.
-u Suppresses all duplicate entries. Ignored bytes and bytes
outside keys do not participate in this comparison.
Examples
Print in alphabetical order all the unique spellings in a list of
words. Capitalized words differ from uncapitalized.
sort-u +0f +0 list
Print the password file, sorted by user id number (the 3rd colon-sepa‐
rated field).
sort -t: +2n /etc/passwd
Print the first instance of each month in an already sorted file of
(month day) entries. The options -um with just one input file make the
choice of a unique representative from a set of equal lines pre‐
dictable.
sort-um +0 -1 dates
Restrictions
Very long lines are silently truncated.
Diagnostics
Comments and exits with nonzero status for various trouble conditions
and for disorder discovered under option c.
Files
/usr/tmp/stm*, /tmp/* first and second tries for temporary files
See Alsocomm(1), join(1), rev(1), uniq(1)sort(1)
